On a first gut, do you hire a GC or run the subs yourself

I've done it both ways and both hurt, so I want to see how this room splits.

The GC version: you pay a markup, usually 15 to 25 percent on top of the subs, sometimes more on a gut because he's carrying the scheduling risk. On a 180 rehab that's 27 to 45 of pure coordination cost. What you get is one number, one throat to choke, and someone whose plumber shows up because that plumber wants next year's work too. On my second gut the GC ate a framing miss that was arguably mine to eat, because he wanted the relationship. That was worth more than the markup.

The self-GC version: you keep the markup, and the markup is often the whole difference between a deal that pencils and one that doesn't at today's spreads. But you're now the scheduler. Electrician can't rough in until framing's done, drywall can't go until rough-in passes, and if you lose a week anywhere you're paying carry for it. My first gut I self-GC'd and I lost about six weeks to sequencing I didn't understand, which cost me more than the markup would have.

So the honest tradeoff is money against calendar, and on a gut the calendar is expensive. Someone will say do it yourself on a small cosmetic job and hire a GC on a gut, which I mostly agree with, except that the guts are exactly the deals where the markup is biggest and hardest to afford.

Curious where people land, especially anyone who self-GC'd a gut and would still do it again.